Craig Murray

Craig Murray     (Whistleblower, Diplomat, Author)
Born	Craig John Murray 17 October 1958 Norfolk, UK
Nationality	English
Alma mater	University of Dundee
Exposed	UK complicity in torture
Founder/Owner of	Craig Murray's blog
Member of	American Herald Tribune, Sam Adams Award, Workers Party of Britain
Interest of	"Philip Cross"
A UK ambassador to Uzbekistan who stood up and did the right thing when confronted with evidence of torture. Smeared and dismissed by the powers that be, he continues his activism exposing Establishment lies and hypocrisy.  Rector of Dundee University  In office 2007 - 2010  UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan In office 2002 - 2004 Dismissed for taking a stand against torture  Deputy High Commissioner,  British High Commission,  West Africa Branch In office 1998 - 2002 Employer HM Diplomatic Service  diplomat  In office 1984 - 2004 Employer HM Diplomatic Service

Craig Murray is a UK senior diplomat turned whistleblower, author, blogger and human rights activist. He resigned as Britain's Ambassador to Uzbekistan after revealing that the UK government knowingly used intelligence obtained by torture. The next decade he lived "as a dissident where I have devoted my life to exposing, and trying to counter, the evil of the neo-conservative policy pursued by our political class at the behest of the corporations who fund them. I have suffered a huge loss in money, status and most of the other normal aspirations. But what I have gained is invaluable. I have respect and love, while Blair and Straw will forever be despised."

Background

Craig Murray was born on 17 October 1958 in West Runton, near Cromer, Norfolk. He was educated at Sheringham Primary and Paston Grammar schools. He graduated from the University of Dundee in 1982 with an MA (Hons) 1st Class in Modern History. From 1982 to 1984 he was President of Dundee University Students Association and was Rector of Dundee University (2007-2010).

Diplomatic career

Craig Murray joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1984 and was assigned to Southern African Department (SAfD) to uphold the sporting boycott and the UN's mandatory arms embargo against apartheid South Africa. Craig Murray thus replaced Patrick Haseldine in September 1984 when the latter was seconded to the Office of Fair Trading following the Coventry Four affair and adverse staff appraisal reports from the South Africa desk officer David Carter and SAfD's assistant head Nigel Thorpe.

First two years

Craig Murray wrote that "My first FCO job was in the South Africa Section as the South Africa (political) officer, at a time when Apartheid was in full sway in South Africa. It was the official policy of Her Majesty’s Government to oppose international sanctions efforts, and the Thatcher government’s official line was that Mandela was a terrorist properly in jail after a fair trial. There was a huge tension between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and 10 Downing Street..."

Postings

Craig Murray's postings as a member of HM Diplomatic Service included:

• 1986-9: Second Secretary (Commercial), British High Commission, Lagos. Responsible for promoting British exports to, and business interests in, Nigeria.
• 1989-92 Head of Maritime Section, Aviation and Maritime Department (AMD), FCO, London. Responsible for negotiation of the UK and Dependent Territory continental shelf and fisheries boundaries, for implementation of the Channel Tunnel treaty and for negotiations on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
• From August 1990 to August 1991 he was also head of AMD's Embargo Surveillance Centre, responsible for intelligence analysis on Iraqi attempts at evading sanctions, particularly in the field of weapons procurement, and with providing information to UK military forces and to other governments to effect physical enforcement of the embargo.
• 1992-4 Cyprus desk officer in Southern European Department (SED), FCO, London. Responsible for UN negotiations on the Cyprus dispute, relations with the government of Cyprus and for the mandate and requirements of the British contingent of the UN force in Cyprus.
• 1994-7 First Secretary (Political and Economic), British Embassy, Warsaw. Head of the Political and Economic sections of our Embassy in Poland. Responsible for relations with Poland, and assisting Poland’s post-communist transition process with reference to preparation for EU membership.
• 1997-8 Deputy Head, Africa Department (Equatorial), FCO, London. Responsible for British political and commercial relationships with West Africa, including development issues.
• 1998-2002 Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission, West Africa Branch. Responsible for British economic, political, commercial and aid relationships with Ghana and Togo. In Autumn 1998, Craig Murray was the UK Representative at the Sierra Leone Peace talks held in Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, including direct negotiation with the RUF terrorist leadership.
• 2002-2004 British Ambassador, Uzbekistan. Responsible for the UK relationship with Uzbekistan, where he found Western support for the dictatorial Karimov regime unconscionable, as detailed on his website

Questioning Use of Torture

Craig Murray's allegations of UK/US connection to torture

Murray was summoned back to London in August 2003 and presented with 18, mostly baseless, allegations about his behaviour and given a week to resign, he said. He suffered a breakdown and the charges were dropped, but he said he planned to take legal action against the Foreign Office as his health had been permanently affected.

Suspension

In October 2004, Murray was recalled from his post in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent amid conflicting statements about whether he was to face disciplinary action. He told the BBC that the reason for his removal was his criticism of the use of intelligence allegedly obtained under torture by the Uzbekistan Government. The Foreign Office refused to be comment on these claims, but in a statement said he had been withdrawn, not on disciplinary, but on "operational grounds". It added that the charge it was suppressing open discussion was completely without foundation.

Murray's removal has prompted an open letter to the British government from Uzbek political activists who describe him as a "force for democratic change". But Mr Murray said FCO officials had been trying to force him out for a year because of his despatches back to London. In one he claimed MI6 had used information passed on to it by the CIA but originally obtained in Uzbek torture cells - something strongly denied by the Foreign Office. In the leaked telegram, printed in the Financial Times, he wrote that the use of information gained by torture was "morally, practically and legally wrong".

"I have been a victim of conscience," Mr Murray told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I expressed my view strongly, but only internally. It wasn't me that leaked my views to the Financial Times but plainly that has led to my removal from my post." He added: "This sends a very strong signal that since the start of the war on "terrorism", anyone who even internally questions what's happening from a liberal standpoint is going to seriously damage their employment prospects."

Amnesty International UK described Mr Murray's championing of human rights as "extremely important" and said it would be alarmed if it had led to his removal. "The government should now make it clear that it wishes to have a strong British voice for human rights in Tashkent," a spokesman added.

Tory international affairs spokesman Gary Streeter told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme it was "perfectly legitimate" for Mr Murray to criticise "the way things are working within his sphere of influence".

On 14 March 2014, Craig Murray described "The Torture Cover-Up" as follows:

"The entire programme was on a scale and of an order of brutality much greater than anything that has been yet understood by the public. All of those foreign nationals rendered to Uzbekistan, for example, were killed during or following torture and buried in the desert."

Parliamentary candidate

At the 2005 UK General Election, Craig Murray took on Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Blackburn as an independent candidate, gaining 2,082 votes.

On 10 December 2014, The Scotsman newspaper reported that Craig Murray had been nominated by SNP members in the party’s branch in Airdrie and Shotts, whose seat is held by Labour’s Pamela Nash, to fight for the nationalists at the 2015 General Election. The report continued:

"Mr Murray, who campaigned for a Yes vote in the independence referendum, also controversially described No supporters as 'either evil, or quite extraordinarily thick.' Mr Murray said: 'I’m in the vetting process at the moment, but it’s correct to say I’ve been nominated in Airdrie and Shotts.'

"The SNP is expected to begin a formal selection process in the coming weeks, when other members will have the chance to seek selection as an SNP candidate in the seat, which Ms Nash took for Labour with a majority of 12,408 in 2010. Mr Murray is likely to face a challenge from SNP activist Tom Montgomery for the Airdrie and Shotts nomination.

"An SNP spokeswoman said: 'There are a number of nominations for the Airdrie and Shotts seat, and once nominations close, members in the area will be balloted to decide on their choice of candidate.'

"Labour has called on SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to prevent Mr Murray being selected as a candidate because of his remarks about No voters.

"However, he said he had also been approached about standing in other constituencies such as Falkirk – a key nationalist target where sitting MP Eric Joyce is standing down after being forced out of Labour following a conviction for assaulting Tory politicians in the Commons.

Candidate's 350-word statement

Craig Murray explained: every candidate for selection is allowed a 350-word statement including a CV to be given to members with their ballot paper. This is the 350-word statement which I had submitted to HQ for distribution to SNP members in Falkirk, prior to my disqualification. It has never been distributed, but I would like every SNP member to read it. If you know one, send it to them:

My aim is to achieve Independence. The Smith Commission shows we will never be given the control of our own economic resources required to achieve our aims of social justice, or to stimulate the economy, within the Union.

I think we have to avoid the trap of managerialism – of being just another political party but a little more competent and fair. We should maintain a firm thrust towards the goal of national freedom.

I will vote with the SNP group, but my voice within the party will be against any coalition agreement with Labour or Tories.

I want to defeat Labour, not sustain them. I want to end the Union, not to run it.

Within the SNP we must guard against success leading us to develop our own careerists. Professional politicians in Westminster have become a parasitic class with interchangeable beliefs, out for themselves. There are too many of them – Special Advisers, research assistants etc. The number of politicians paid for by the taxpayer has quadrupled in 30 years.

The best MPs contribute from a wide variety of life experience.

I want the dynamic citizen activism we saw in the Yes campaign to lead to a new kind of politics in Scotland. Bubbling up from ordinary folk. And I want that energy from the people to defeat the forces of the mainstream media and the unionists here in the coming election.

Together, we can do it.

If selected as our candidate I will immediately move my family home to Falkirk and begin campaigning. Once elected MP, my home will become my constituency office and open to all, and no MP will work harder for his constituents. No Scottish MP will have lower expenses. I shall regularly attend the Commons and speak in debate.

Craig Murray

Writer, Human Rights Activist.

Chairman, Atholl Energy Ltd

Rector, Dundee University 2007-10

Honorary Research Fellow, University of Lancaster School of Law 2006-10

British Ambassador Uzbekistan 2002-4

HM Diplomatic Service 1984-2005

MA 1st Class Hons Modern History

Declined LVO, OBE and CVO as a Scottish nationalist and republican

Maybe that statement is what really got me disqualified?

Barred by the SNP

On 27 December 2014, Craig Murray announced on Facebook:

"Terribly upset and depressed after being barred from the approved candidates register by the SNP hierarchy for 'lack of commitment to group discipline.'

"I was asked at assessment whether, as part of a Westminster deal with another party, I would agree to vote for the bedroom tax if instructed by the Party. I replied 'No': end of SNP political career. Problem is, I really believed we were building a different kind of politics in Scotland.

"I had very, very strong support from ordinary members to be the candidate in Falkirk or in Airdrie, and had 17 requests to stand from other constituencies, several from branch meetings. Wonder what SNP new membership will think of this?

"My analysis is that those in the SNP who make a fat living out of it are terrified the energy of the Yes campaign may come to threaten their comfy position.

"I think there is an important debate here on how the 80% of the SNP who are new members can affect its existing gatekeeping structures. No new members were involved in deciding if I was a fit candidate, and the 1500 new members in each of Falkirk and Airdrie were denied any chance to vote for me. Please share this post."

John Goss commented:

"Amazing. Electoral colleges are the bane of political parties today. It is the reason there is no difference between Labour and Tories. I never trusted the SNP. Alex Salmond has, like so many other Scots of power, said there will be no proper Lockerbie Inquiry. Speaks for itself."

Kerrsed by Morag

On Craig Murray's blog Patrick Haseldine commented:

Having been disbarred as an SNP candidate, Craig Murray was prescient to have tweeted on 12 December 2014

“For Morag, Wherever I May Find Her”.

In no particular order, the multi-talented Morag “Rolfe” Kerr is a:

Peeblesshire vet;

MI5 operative;

former Membership Secretary of the SNP (London Branch);

Admin on Wikipedia;

9/11 debunker on the James Randi Educational Forum;

Secretary Depute of the ‘Justice for Megrahi’ campaign group;

author of “Adequately Explained By Stupidity? Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies”;

unsuccessful SNP candidate at Tweeddale West;

opinionated commentator on 'Wings Over Scotland'; and,

self-appointed vetter of SNP candidates.

Hoping that Hugh Kerr is not similarly Kerrsed!

2017 Libel Lawsuit

In November 2017, Craig Murray reported that the High Court case in which he had been sued for libel was settled in an agreed joint statement:

"On 29 April 2016, Jake Wallis Simons and Craig Murray appeared together on Sky News to debate anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom. Following that debate, Dr Wallis Simons issued libel proceedings against Mr Murray. Dr Wallis Simons and Mr Murray have now settled these proceedings.

"By this statement, Mr Murray accepts that Dr Wallis Simons is not a liar, and Dr Wallis Simons accepts that Mr Murray is not an anti-Semite. They are both pleased to have resolved this dispute amicably."

Opinions

“The naive view of the world as “goodies” and “baddies”, with our own ruling class as the good guys, is for the birds. I witnessed personally in Uzbekistan the willingness of the UK and US security services to accept and validate intelligence they knew to be false in order to pursue their policy objectives.”
Craig Murray (13 March 2018) 

Dr Rola

Full article: Dr Rola

“This video of Robert Stuart is a must see. Let me pin my colours to the mast and say that I am absolutely convinced that the BBC did deliberately and knowingly fake evidence of chemical attacks.”
Craig Murray (9 March 2016) 

Torture and Kidnapping

Following publication of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Report on the CIA’s Use of Torture in December 2014, Craig Murray said “Can I just say how pleasant it is to be vindicated ten years after being sacked by Jack Straw for opposing the torture and extraordinary rendition programme – which Blair and Straw claimed I was inventing.” </ref> In an audio interview on 12 December 2014, Craig Murray recounted his experience to Scottish journalist and broadcaster Derek Bateman examining the legacy of Labour in a week when revelations about state-sanctioned torture by the CIA under Bush/Cheney further threaten the reputation of the Blair government.

False flag attacks

Craig Murray announced in 2010 that he would summarily remove any comments about 9/11 from his website, stating his own position that "I do not believe that the US government, or any of its agencies, were responsible for 9/11. It would just need too many people to be involved. Someone would have objected." Peter Presland wrote in 2010 that "Craig's problem is that, for some reason, he refuses to connect the dots"..

Murray's blind spot for false flag operations has not stopped his noticing that these event are exploited (but not organised) by Western governments. After the 2015 mass murder in Paris, he observed that "Cameron’s announcement of 15% budget and staff increases for the security services was made immediately after the Paris attacks, but was plainly not something thought up in a few hours. The plans for mass surveillance had already been announced, and would have to be staffed. This kind of sickening political opportunism is the true disrespect to the innocent dead."

Lockerbie Bombing

Full article: Lockerbie: What Really Happened#Craig Murray

Craig Murray has publicly supported the Al Jazeera documentary, "Lockerbie: What Really Happened?" which concluded that the Lockerbie bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by the PFLP-GC, with help from Hezbollah, and if Libya had a role, it was secondary. Murray blogged that "The information on Lockerbie published in today’s Daily Mail from an Iranian defector, matches precisely what I was shown in a secret intelligence report in the FCO just around the time of the first Iraq war. It was decided that this would be kept under wraps because the West needed Iran and Syria’s quiescence in the attack on Iraq."

Wikileaks

Having spoken in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in August 2012 who, to avoid extradition to Sweden, had taken up residence in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, Craig Murray condemned the Foreign Secretary's "astonishing lie" about the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which had ruled in favour of Assange on 5 February 2016. Murray wrote:

"To my astonishment, the FCO Official Spokesman has just confirmed to me that the FCO stands by Philip Hammond’s statement that the members of the UNWGAD are lay persons, and not lawyers. Even though every single one of them is an extremely distinguished lawyer."

Author

Craig Murray is the author of two books:

Murder in Samarkand

Craig Murray was the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Uzbekistan until he was removed from his post in October 2004 after exposing appalling human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of President Islam Karimov. This is a candid and at times shocking memoir, in which he exposes what is being done in the name of the "War on Terror".

The Catholic Orangemen of Togo (and Other Conflicts I Have Known)

This is an autobiographical prequel to "Murder in Samarkand" that covers the period 1998 to 2002. It exposes the links between blood diamonds, crime & British mercenary involvement in Africa, and argues that the disregard Tony Blair showed for both British and international law in dealing with Sierra Leone prefigured the disaster of Iraq.

Censorship by Tim Spicer

Lt-Col Sir Tim Spicer questioned in Parliament: "I believed what we were doing was within the law"

In July 2008, law firm Schillings, representing Tim Spicer, wrote to Craig Murray's publishers, Mainstream Publishing Company (Edinburgh) Ltd., threatening legal action over his forthcoming book, at the time provisionally titled The Road to Samarkand. Chapters two "Arms to Africa" and four "The Sandline Affair" deal with the Sierra Leone "Arms to Africa" affair in depth. At the time of these events, Craig Murray was Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission, West Africa Branch. In Autumn 1998 he was the UK Representative at the Sierra Leone Peace talks held in Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone which included direct negotiation with the RUF terrorist leadership. He therefore had first-hand experience of these matters from a senior Foreign Office position.

Some negotiation between Murray and Mainstream followed, during which it was ascertained precisely which parts of the proposed book had to be removed for Mainstream to proceed with publication. Murray refused to be censored. He published the 'offending' parts on his blog (also available at this WikiSpooks page) and decided to self-publish the book. It was first posted as a pdf on a number of web sites before being released in printed form as "The Catholic Orangemen of Togo" .

 

Documents by Craig Murray

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Bigger than 911	article	23 October 2010	HMS Astute grounding	Some light relief at the expense of the MOD and its Trident nuclear missile carrying submarine fleet.
Document:A Moment in History	blog post	26 June 2019	Labour Friends of Israel Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn Parliamentary Labour Party	It is ESSENTIAL that every Labour Party member reading this blog acts NOW to try to get rid of those dreadful Blairite MPs. If you do not act, the historic moment will be missed and the chance to move England and Wales away from neoliberalism may be permanently surrendered.
Document:A New Left Wing Party in the UK?	blog post	18 September 2024	George Galloway Jeremy Corbyn Andrew Feinstein Israel/Lobby Peace and Justice Project Workers Party of Britain Collective Party Pamela Fitzpatrick	Initially any new party needs to be led by Jeremy to establish itself. George should be Deputy Leader. Neither man would wish to serve for an extended period. I would like to see Andrew Feinstein eventually lead, not least because he most definitely would not want to do it.
Document:A warring nation, united against us	Letter	19 August 2021	NATO NGO Afghanistan Taliban The Herald Afghanistan/2001 Invasion Afghanistan/2021 withdrawal	Craig Murray's letter to The Herald from prison in Edinburgh: "As with the previous three times when UK invasions were defeated in Afghanistan, we have united a warring nation in hatred of us."
Document:All Pretence is Over in Persecution of Assange	blog post	14 February 2018	Wikileaks James Arbuthnot Emma Arbuthnot Julian Assange/Imprisonment	“Lady” Arbuthnot has perhaps performed an unwitting public service by the brazen nature of her partiality, which exposes beyond refutation the charade of legal process behind the effort to arrest Assange, in reality over the publication of USA secrets.
Document:American Presidents	blog post	4 November 2020	Joe Biden Donald Trump US/2020 Presidential election Kamala Harris	On the US election I showed my limitations with a tweet yesterday evening predicting Joe Biden would win fairly comfortably, and Trump would concede with good grace. I was wrong.
Document:An Unpopular Article	blog post	1 October 2019	Boris Johnson Charlotte Edwardes Jennifer Arcuri	Throwing the kitchen sink of accusations against Boris Johnson obscures with chaff the allegations of real wrongdoing, like directing public funds and assistance to the company of a woman with whom he was in a sexual relationship. That should be investigated.
Document:Assange Bail Application Today	blog post	25 March 2020	Nils Melzer Vanessa Baraitser Westminster Magistrates' Court COVID-19 International Bar Association Julian Assange/Imprisonment	If the authorities now refuse to allow him out on bail during the COVID-19 outbreak, I do not see how anybody can possibly argue there is any intention other than to cause his death.
Document:Assange Final Appeal Day 2 – Your Man in the Public Gallery	blog post	29 February 2024	Wikileaks Julian Assange Chelsea Manning Michael Snow Vanessa Baraitser James Lewis Clair Dobbin Graham Phillips Jonathan Mark Swift Victoria Sharp Jeremy Johnson	Initially US authorities were keen to downplay the possible sentence, but have radically changed tack and now emphasise 30 to 40 years as the norm, which is in effect a rest of life sentence. That shift, together with the refusal so far to rule out the death penalty, gives a measure of the ruthlessness with which the CIA is pursuing the extradition of Julian Assange.
Document:Assange Final Appeal – Your Man in the Public Gallery	blog post	21 February 2024	Wikileaks Julian Assange Chelsea Manning Michael Snow Vanessa Baraitser Graham Phillips Jonathan Mark Swift Victoria Sharp Jeremy Johnson	The indictment describes Wikileaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence agency”. That was plainly an accusation of espionage. This is self-evidently a politically motivated prosecution for a political offence.
Document:Assange Must Not Also Die in Jail	blog post	13 August 2019	John Pilger Jeffrey Epstein Gina Haspel Julian Assange/Imprisonment	Many of the same people who are relieved by Jeffrey Epstein’s death would like to see Julian Assange dead too.
Document:Backing the Wrong Horseman	blog post		Israel Middle East Saudi Arabia US UK COVID-19	The neo-con drive to dominate the Middle East, in alliance with Saudi Arabia and Israel, has caused an apocalyptic level of death and destruction, which I put (an extremely conservative figure) at 5 million dead. Now compare that to the worldwide death toll from coronavirus: 220,000. Let me say that again. Western aggressive wars to coronavirus: 5,000,000 versus 220,000.
Document:Beware the Cult of Cadwalladr	blog post	22 January 2022	Christopher Steele Cambridge Analytica Carole Cadwalladr Integrity Initiative Arron Banks	The present libel trial between Arron Banks and Carole Cadwalladr is therefore a struggle between two deeply unpleasant people. Cadwalladr’s lies, in my view, are political and still come within the realm of free speech. I support her right to say it, just as I support my right to denounce and expose her as an utterly unprincipled and fraudulent tool of the security services.
Document:Beyond Words	blog post	8 April 2020	Julian Assange Alex Salmond Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Vanessa Baraitser COVID-19	Nobody cultivates her own anonymity more than Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser who has her existence carefully removed from the Internet almost entirely. Yet she seeks to destroy the peace and young lives of Julian Assange’s family.
Document:Biden Works to Prolong Ukraine War	blog post	7 June 2022	Vladimir Putin Joe Biden Odessa Boris Johnson Henry Kissinger Recep Tayyip Erdogan Emmanuel Macron Lloyd Austin Volodymyr Zelensky 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine	"Ukraine is objecting to this plan (for Turkey to clear sea lanes of mines and to police the ships carrying grain) because it objects to the removal of the mines, which I should be clear were put down in the sea lanes by Ukraine to prevent amphibious attack on Odessa."
Document:Censorship and Freedom of Speech	blog post	1 October 2008	Censorship Tony Blair Corruption
Document:Chelsea and Julian are in Jail. History Trembles.	blog post	12 April 2019	Julian Assange Chelsea Manning Michael Snow	Julian Assange said nothing during the whole brief proceedings, other than to say “Not guilty” twice, and to ask a one sentence question about why the charges were changed midway through this sham “trial”. Yet Judge Michael Snow condemned Assange as “narcissistic”.
Document:Civil Liberty Vanishes	blog post	6 May 2020	Julian Assange Liam Fox Matthew Gould Adam Werritty Palantir Technologies Priti Patel NHSX	"Serious questions have to be asked about why the UK government has developed its own unique app, universally criticised for its permanent central data collection and ability to identify individuals from their unique codes. That this is overseen by NHSX CEO Matthew Gould who held all those secret meetings with Liam Fox and Adam Werritty, including with Mossad, frankly stinks."
Document:Craig Murray - Political Prisoner of the British State	Speech	30 July 2021	Craig Murray Wikileaks Clive Ponting European Court of Human Rights Daniel Everette Hale Jigsaw Identification	"This is selective prosecution. This is political persecution. And I have no doubt whatsoever that I go to jail as a political prisoner" (extract from Craig Murray's speech two days before going to Edinburgh's Saughton Jail).
Document:Death Wish 2023	blog post		Chatham House Military-industrial-congressional complex Ukraine James Sherr 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Hegemony	"The practical problem with James Sherr’s call for total war is that Ukraine really does not have the population numbers to sustain to victory a total war against Russia. It is just going to run out of people, as indeed the much trumpeted counteroffensive appears to have done."
Document:Epstein's Death Must Be the Start, not the End, of the Investigation	blog post	11 August 2019	Alan Dershowitz Bill Clinton Jeffrey Epstein Andrew Windsor Ghislaine Maxwell Virginia Roberts Carl Beech	It is a great shame that in the UK, the Establishment has been able to characterise the falsifications of Carl Beech as discrediting the entire notion of historical child sexual abuse.
Document:Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses in WikiLeaks Disclosures	statement	7 December 2010	Wikileaks	A statement of support for Wikileaks. "The big question is not whether Americans can 'handle the truth.' We believe they can..."
Document:Exclusive: I Can Reveal the Legal Advice on Drone Strikes, and How the Establishment Works	article	9 September 2015	Benjamin Netanyahu Iraq Inquiry Drone Peter Goldsmith Daniel Bethlehem Jeremy Wright UK/FCO	Craig Murray reveals how Sir Daniel Bethlehem continues to bring a Zionist perspective to any legal advice emanating from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Document:Existence vs Expansion	blog post	21 July 2024	Israel Israeli–Palestinian conflict Palestine International Court of Justice Keir Starmer UN/SC David Lammy Two-state solution Oslo Accords Occupied Palestinian Territory UNGA	The International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion is extremely lucid and decisive. The ball is now back in the court of the UN General Assembly, which requested the Opinion. The General Assembly now should move to suspend Israel’s membership of the United Nations. That is the next project on which I shall be working.
Document:FBI Fabrication Against Assange Falls Apart	blog post	29 June 2021	Julian Assange Gareth Peirce Vanessa Baraitser Sigi Thordarson Mark Summers	The revelation that Sigi Thordarson’s allegations are fabricated – which everyone knew already, Vanessa Baraitser just pretended she didn’t – is just one more illegality that the Establishment will shimmy over in its continued persecution of Julian Assange.
Document:First Recorded Successful Novichok Synthesis was in 2016 – By Iran, in Cooperation with the OPCW	blog post	17 March 2018	Iran Theresa May Russia Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Novichok Chemical Weapons Convention	Beginning in late 2016, Iranian scientists succeeded in synthesising a number of Novichoks in full cooperation with the OPCW. This makes a complete nonsense of Theresa May’s “of a type developed by Russia” line, used to Parliament and the UN Security Council.
Document:Has International Law Survived, or Has the Western Political Class Killed It?	blog post	28 January 2024	Israel South Africa International Court of Justice Algeria UNRWA Ursula von der Leyen Isaac Herzog UN/SC Roberta Metsola Genocide Convention Philippe Lazzarini	Now think of this: the very next day after President Herzog made a genocidal statement, as determined by the International Court of Justice, he was met and offered “full support” by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament
Document:Has Western Democracy Now Failed?	blog post	19 July 2023	Keir Starmer Trickle-down economics Post-democratic society	We live in a post-democratic society. That is difficult to accept, but it is true.
Document:Has the Elite’s Slavish pro-Israel Agenda Finally Gone Too Far	Blog post	25 February 2019	"Antisemitism" Israel/Defense Forces Jeremy Corbyn Hezbollah 2006 Lebanon War Sajid Javid Two-state solution	Israeli destruction of Palestinian olive trees in the occupied territories is almost as heinous as the continuing killing and imprisonment of Palestinian children. Every morning ask yourself this question: "How many children has the Israeli “Defence” Force killed since the MSM last reported one?"
Document:How To Spot A Twitter Troll	Wikispooks Page	2 July 2019	MI6 GCHQ MI5 Integrity Initiative Troll 77th Brigade	Exposure is the simple way to nullify the vast state propaganda programmes on social media
Document:How to spot a Twitter troll	blog post	2 July 2019	MI6 GCHQ MI5 Integrity Initiative Troll The 77th Brigade	Exposure is the simple way to nullify the vast state propaganda programmes on social media
Document:Huawei Hypocrisy	blog post	7 May 2019	GCHQ National Security Agency Nick Clegg Theresa May Gavin Williamson Huawei	Former Deputy PM Nick Clegg said GCHQ's ability "to hack anything from handsets to whole networks … needs to be much better understood".
Document:I Am Obliged to Reconsider My Support for the European Union	Article	3 October 2017	Spain European Union Mariano Rajoy Catalonia Carles Puigdemont	Today, and with a greater sadness than you can imagine, I withdraw my support for membership of the European Union
Document:I Go to Stand My Trial	Blog post	2 November 2017	Mark Lewis Jake Wallis Simons	The Trial starts on Tuesday 7 November at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, High Court Queen’s Bench Division, and lasts for two or three days. By the time I come back online the Tories will have appointed their next Disgraced Former Defence Secretary in Waiting.
Document:I Stand in Blackburn	blog post	16 April 2024	Craig Murray Alex Salmond George Galloway Jeremy Corbyn Blackburn Keir Starmer Andrew Feinstein Wes Streeting Alba Party Workers Party of Britain	I am going to need help – leafleting, canvassing, manning offices and the many myriad tasks of an election campaign. I am buoyed by the solid start we have in support across all communities in Blackburn. We are going to give Starmer a roasting, we are going to take on the zionist monopoly of power, and it is going to be great fun!
Document:Importing Jihadi Terror to the UK – Cui Bono	blog post	25 September 2018	White Helmets 2017 Manchester bombing Salman Abedi	Importing the White Helmets into the UK is obviously nuts if your purpose is to minimise jihadi activity in the UK
Document:Index on Disgrace	Article	22 April 2018	BBC The Guardian Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Times University of Dundee Save the Children Index on Censorship	"We thus have the extraordinary spectacle of a coordinated government and media onslaught on anybody who doubts their entirely fact free narratives. Public trust in the state and corporate media hits new lows, which is the happy part of this story."
Document:Interfering with Laura Kuenssberg	blog post	25 November 2019	Boris Johnson Laura Kuenssberg Brexit Dominic Cummings Vox pop Echo chamber UK/General election/2019	It's no coincidence that it is precisely the old and the poorly educated that are the targets of Dominic Cummings’ "Brexit election” strategy. If it comes off, Laura Kuenssberg and her fellow hacks will have proven that the power of the mainstream media is as yet unbroken.
Document:Internalised Danger	blog post	6 November 2020	"Climate change" Joe Biden Donald Trump Bernie Sanders US/2020 Presidential election Kamala Harris Green New Deal	America urgently needs a radical dose of social and economic reform as championed by Bernie Sanders. It needs the Green New Deal, and the world needs a real commitment in Washington to environmentalism.
Document:It’s Not Socialism. It’s Another Mega Wealth Transfer.	blog post	23 March 2020	Boris Johnson Richard Branson COVID-19 Carphone Warehouse Cosalt David Ross Asset stripping	Amid the COVID-19 panic, it has hardly been noticed that Carphone Warehouse went bust, with 2,900 people losing their jobs. Its co-founder, David Ross, is of course the billionaire that Boris Johnson claimed paid for his luxury holiday to Mustique, whereas Ross claimed he only organised it.
Document:Lawyers For Israel Oppose Conscience	blog post	20 May 2023	Lawfare UK Lawyers for Israel Palestine Action Elbit Systems UK Public Order Act	Convictions based on “intent” to do something you have not actually done, are generally dubious. The Shenstone defendants have been told by Judge Chambers they will get prison sentences. Expect these to be vicious.
Document:Let’s Move On From Boris	blog post	28 May 2020	Tony Blair Richard Nixon Bill Clinton Boris Johnson Dominic Cummings	"Boris Johnson on the Dominic Cummings debacle: 'It is now time to move on… the country wants to move on.' If a politician tells you to 'move on' from a subject, it is a gigantic red flag that you should do precisely the opposite."
Document:Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran	webpage	14 November 2011	Matthew Gould
Document:Media Freedom? Show me the MSM Journalist Opposing the Torture of Assange	blog post	7 September 2020	Julian Assange Corporate media Rupert Murdoch David Aaronovitch Belmarsh Prison Extinction Rebellion Old Bailey	At a time when the government is mooting designating Extinction Rebellion as Serious Organised Crime, right wing bequiffed muppet Keir Starmer was piously condemning the group, stating: “The free press is the cornerstone of democracy and we must do all we can to protect it.”
Document:Metropolitan Police on 'Chepiga' and 'Mishkin'	blog post	12 October 2018	Bellingcat Skripal Affair 2018 Amesbury poisonings Alexander Petrov Ruslan Boshirov	I remain of the view that the best way forward would be for Putin to negotiate conditions under which Boshirov and Petrov might voluntarily come to the UK for trial
Document:Mohammed Bin Salman: The Truth Behind The Reformist Facade	blog post	8 March 2018	Donald Trump Mohammed bin Salman	Then something remarkable happened which the world mainstream media has almost entirely ignored. Despite Saudi sponsored adverts all over US media portraying named senior Qataris as terrorist sponsors, and despite strong Israeli pro-Saudi lobbying, Donald Trump suddenly called Mohammed bin Salman to heel.
Document:Momento Mori – Unpopular Thoughts on Corona Virus	blog post	7 March 2020	COVID-19 Spanish flu Hong Kong flu COVID-19/Panic	Consider this: 100% of those who contract COVID-19 are going to die. 100% of those who do not contract COVID-19 are also going to die. The difference in average life expectancy between the two groups will prove to be only very marginal. That is because the large majority of those who die of COVID-19 will already be nearing the end of life or have other health problems.
Document:Muellergate and the Discreet Lies of the Bourgeoisie	Blog post	1 April 2019	Wikileaks Julian Assange Robert Mueller William Binney Katharine Viner Cambridge Analytica Carole Cadwalladr Paul Manafort Sergei Skripal Luke Harding Integrity Initiative Russiagate Muellergate Ed Loomis Steele dossier	The capacity of the mainstream media repeatedly to promote the myth that Russia caused Clinton’s defeat, while never mentioning what the information was that had been so damaging to Hillary, should be alarming to anybody under the illusion that we have a working “free media”.
Document:Nato Expansion and Turkey	blog post	17 May 2022	NATO Sweden Russia Greece Turkey Ukraine Finland Recep Tayyip Erdogan 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine	There is another, specifically Turkish interest in play here, which is very much a factor in Erdogan’s willingness to stand up to Biden over Swedish and Finnish NATO entry. This of course relates to the permanent tension between NATO members Turkey and Greece.
Document:Netanyahu Plays Chicken	blog post	21 September 2024	Benjamin Netanyahu Hezbollah Hamas Keir Starmer Hassan Nasrallah Israel/Lobby Axis of Resistance 2024 Lebanon pager explosions Joe Biden/Presidency	Netanyahu’s strategy of assassinations and deadly stunts appears to be an attempt to goad Hezbollah out of their own territory into a suicidal advance into Israel. But Nasrullah is not falling for it. It is worth stressing that, contrary to the propaganda, in the last year Israel has hit Lebanon with five missiles for every one sent by Hezbollah.
... further results

 

Quotes by Craig Murray

Page	Quote	Date	Source
2020	“As the Establishment feels its grip slipping, as people wake up to the appalling economic exploitation by the few that underlies the very foundations of modern western society, expect the methods used by the security services to become even dirtier. You can bank on continued ramping up of Russophobia to supply “the enemy”. As both Scottish Independence and Jeremy Corbyn are viewed as real threats by the British Establishment, you can anticipate every possible kind of dirty trick in the next couple of years, with increasing frequency and audacity.”	December 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Julian Assange	“[...] the most lucid man I know is now not capable of having a rational conversation is extremely alarming.”	31 May 2019
Tony Blair	“Thatcher deliberately and cruelly wrecked the social democratic society in which I grew up, with the aim of destroying any ability for working people to be protected against the whims of the wealthy. But Thatcher never introduced privatisation into the NHS or state schools – that was her acolyte Blair. She maintained free university education in England and Wales. That was destroyed by Blair too.”	25 July 2019	Craig Murray's blog
"Philip Cross"	“My view is that Philip Cross probably is a real person, but that he fronts for a group acting under his name. It is undeniably true, in fact the government has boasted, that both the MOD and GCHQ have “cyber-war” ops aiming to defend the “official narrative" against alternative news media, and that is precisely the purpose of the “Philip Cross” operation on Wikipedia. The extreme regularity of output argues against “Philip Cross” being either a one man or volunteer operation. I do not rule out however the possibility he genuinely is just a single extremely obsessed right wing fanatic.”	21 May 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Drug smuggling	“I stood at the Friendship Bridge at Termez [Uzbekistan] in 2003 and watched the Jeeps with blacked-out windows bringing the heroin through from Afghanistan, en route to Europe. I watched the tankers of chemicals roaring into Afghanistan. Yet I could not persuade my country to do anything about it.”
Government overreach	“The [British] state is now persecuting British citizens and locking them up for daring to say that the state can be wrong.”	October 2024	Craig Murray's blog
Immigrant	“I remain incensed at the success of the elite in conning the deprived that their poverty is caused by immigrants, whereas it is caused by massive inequality of wealth.”	16 December 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Inequality	“We are moving into an era of politics where the foundations of consent which underpin western states are becoming less stable. The massive growth in wealth inequality has led to an alienation of large sections of the population from the political system.”	3 December 2019	Craig Murray's blog
Integrity Initiative	“offers us a glimpse into the very dirty world of surveillance and official disinformation. If we actually had a free media, it would be the biggest story of the day.”	December 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Intelligence agency	“There is something very wrong indeed with the UK security services, which are most certainly not a force for freedom or justice. That MI6 can be headed by as extreme a figure as Dearlove, underlines the threat that the security services pose to any progressive movement in politics.”	11 January 2019	Craig Murray's blog
Islam	“The British had been deliberately exploiting and exacerbating the Shia/Sunni divide as early as 1836 to the Imperial purpose.”	20 December 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Ben Nimmo	“Ben Nimmo works for the Atlantic Council, funded inter alia by NATO. He is also on a retainer of £2,500 per month from the Integrity Initiative, in addition to payments for individual pieces of work. For his attack on Scottish Nationalists Nimmo was therefore paid by the Atlantic Council (your taxes through NATO), by the Integrity Initiative (your taxes) and by the Herald (thankfully shortly going bankrupt)... Nimmo’s role as witchfinder-general for Russian Bots appears very remunerative. His August 2016 invoice to The Institute for Statecraft, apparently the 71st invoice he had issued to various neo-con bodies that year, was for £5,000.”	22 December 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Ben Nimmo	“Nimmo’s track record is simply appalling. In this report for the Atlantic Council website, he falsely identified British pensioner @Ian56789 as a “Russian troll farm”, which led to Ian being named as such by the British government, and to perhaps the most surreal Sky News interview of all time. Perhaps still more remarkably, Nimmo searches for use of the phrase “cui bono?” in reference to the Skripal and fake Douma chemical weapons attacks. Nimmo characterises use of the phrase cui bono as evidence of pro-Assad and pro-Kremlin bots and trolls – he really does. Most people would think to consider cui bono indicates a smattering more commonsense than Nimmo himself displays.”	28 August 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Russophobia	“The complete and unmitigated irrationality of the current epidemic of Russophobia does nothing to reduce its incredible virulence, as it continues to infect the entire political and media class. There is a zero chance that Russia will launch an attack on the UK, yet the entire corporate and state media is leading today with the “need” to spend billions against that most unlikely threat.”	22 January 2018	Craig Murray's blog
Robert Stuart	“Let me pin my colours to the mast and say that I am absolutely convinced that the BBC did deliberately and knowingly fake evidence of chemical attacks.”		Craig Murray's blog
US/Foreign policy	“Anybody who believes that a country's internal democracy is the determining factor in whether the West decides to move for violent regime change in that country, is a complete idiot. Any journalist or politician who makes that claim is more likely to be a complete charlatan than a complete idiot. In recent years, possession of hydrocarbon reserves is very obviously a major factor in western regime change actions.”	January 2019	Craig Murray's blog
US/Foreign policy	“The US/Saudi/Israeli alliance against Iran is the most important geo-political factor in the region today. It is high time this alliance stopped both funding ISIS and pretending to fight it; schizophrenia is not a foreign policy stance.”	20 December 2018
University of Dundee	“My love of the universities was severely tested during my period as Rector of Dundee University, when I saw how far the corporate model had turned them from academic communities developing people and pursuing knowledge, to relentless churners out of unconsidered graduates and financially profitable research, with nearly all sense of community gone.”	22 April 2018
Mark Urban	“Mark Urban’s piece for Newsnight tonight was simply disgusting; it did not even pretend to be more than a propaganda piece on behalf of the security services, who had told Urban (as he said) that Yulia Skripal's phone “could have been” tapped by the Russians and they “might even” have listened to her conversations through the microphone in her telephone. That was the “new evidence” that the Russians were behind everything. As a former British Ambassador I can tell you with certainty that indeed the Russians might have tapped Yulia, but GCHQ most definitely would have. It is, after all, their job, and billions of our taxes go into it. If tapping of phones is seriously presented as evidence of intent to murder, the British government must be very murderous indeed.”	5 July 2018

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
International Festival of Whistleblowing Dissent and Accountability	8 May 2021	8 May 2021	Internet	Whistleblowing event held in 2021.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Bloggers Under Siege - Craig Murray Charged with Contempt of Court	blog post	27 April 2020	Ludwig De Braeckeleer	From Lockerbie to the Russia Hoax, Craig Murray has of course upset people in high-places, including some who work for Intelligence Agencies.
Document:Craig Murray - Political Prisoner of the British State	Speech	30 July 2021	Craig Murray	"This is selective prosecution. This is political persecution. And I have no doubt whatsoever that I go to jail as a political prisoner" (extract from Craig Murray's speech two days before going to Edinburgh's Saughton Jail).
Document:Craig Murray and 9-11	article	30 January 2010	Peter	A reply to Craig Murray's article explaining his embargo on any further discussion of 9-11 in the comments section of his blog
Document:Craig Murray’s jailing is the latest move in a battle to snuff out independent journalism	blog post	30 July 2021	Jonathan Cook	Assange and Murray are not only telling us troubling truths we are not supposed to hear. The fact that they are being denied solidarity by those who are their colleagues, those who may be next in the firing line, tells us everything we need to know about the so-called mainstream media: that the role of corporate journalists is to serve establishment interests, not challenge them.
Document:Defend Freedom of Expression – Support Mark Hirst	Article	15 May 2020	Tommy Sheridan	If we don’t speak up now in defence of those guilty of no crime other than expressing their opinions and speaking truth to power then we will all one day be caught in the tangled web of thought control and authoritarian rule which will render us powerless to oppose injustice and resist draconian restrictions on our freedoms.
Document:Dissident British ex-diplomat Craig Murray indicted for blog posts in Kafkaesque case	Article	27 April 2020	Ben Norton	“The state believes it has finally discovered a way to put me in prison without the inconvenient hurdle of a jury of my peers. This really is the epitome of bad law. To use it against freedom of speech is disgusting.”
Document:Eye Witness to the Agony of Julian Assange	Article	2 October 2020	John Pilger	In the Assange trial, the defendant was caged behind thick glass, and had to crawl on his knees to a slit in the glass, overseen by his guard, to make contact with his lawyers. His message, whispered barely audibly through face masks, was then passed by post-it the length of the court to where his barristers were arguing the case against his extradition to an American hellhole.
Document:Former ambassador and Assange advocate Craig Murray detained under UK terror laws	Article	17 October 2023	Kit Klarenberg	When probed by counter-terror cops about the contents of his laptop, Craig Murray says he openly disclosed that the device contained copies of leaked private emails of Stewart McDonald, a hawkish, deep state-connected Scottish National Party MP: “I told the officers I pitied whichever poor bastard has to wade through McDonald’s emails,” he joked.
Document:I Stand in Blackburn	blog post	16 April 2024	Craig Murray	I am going to need help – leafleting, canvassing, manning offices and the many myriad tasks of an election campaign. I am buoyed by the solid start we have in support across all communities in Blackburn. We are going to give Starmer a roasting, we are going to take on the zionist monopoly of power, and it is going to be great fun!
Document:Kenny MacAskill: Scotland, but not as I know it	blog post	15 September 2021	Kenny MacAskill	Craig Murray’s imprisonment is wrong and his prosecution undermines the liberties we claim to cherish. It’s Scotland but not as I know it or as it should be. As a former Justice Secretary, I find this shameful, and that it should happen under the watch of those who claim to cherish our Nations’ liberty is disgraceful.
Document:Lady Dorrian's Law	blog post	30 July 2021	Stuart Campbell	The ruinous determination of the Scottish Government and the Scottish judicial system to put someone, anyone connected to Alex Salmond in jail out of the First Minister’s demented paranoia and sheer malice has had many disastrous outcomes, for individuals, taxpayers and the country as a whole.
Document:Murray Scottish Appeal Denied; Allowed to Try UK Court	Article	8 June 2021	Joe Lauria	Craig Murray may have been a Crown target for the contempt conviction because he was among few writers defending Alex Salmond and was vindicated by Salmond’s acquittal. Murray has been a fierce advocate for his friend Julian Assange, the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher, whom the United States is trying to extradite from Britain.
Document:Scottish High Court Denies Whistleblower Craig Murray's Request To Appeal Conviction Over Blog Posts	Article	9 June 2021	Mohamed Elmaazi	Craig Murray's fate turns on whether the judges in London, where the Supreme Court is based, consider the application on an expedited basis.
Document:Starmer’s purges of Labour have mutated into the arrest of Palestine supporters	blog post	30 August 2024	Jonathan Cook	Britain’s authoritarian new prime minister is expanding the scope of already draconian laws to redefine his critics as ‘supporters’ of terrorism. Starmer wants to be judge, jury and executioner. We must not let him get away with it.
Document:The Crown came for Craig Murray	blog post	29 July 2021	Gordon Dangerfield	“I go to jail with a clean conscience after a Kafkaesque trial. I believe this is actually the state’s long sought revenge for my whistleblowing on security service collusion with torture and my long term collaboration with Wikileaks and other whistleblowers."
Document:The arrest of journalist Richard Medhurst and the fight to defend democratic rights	Article	27 August 2024	Robert Stevens	Now, in a move that would have been agreed to by PM Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Labour has pioneered the use of an amendment to the Terrorism Act passed by the Tories to once again attempt to silence and criminalise a journalist and political activist. The same course is being pursued by governments throughout the world.
Document:The great con that ruined Britain	Article	3 April 2016	Peter Hitchens	Peter Hitchens, the repentant Thatcherite, has second thoughts about privatisation: if it’s all been so beneficial, why do so many of the containers that arrive in British ports, full of expensive imports, leave this country empty?
Document:Whistleblower Craig Murray Sentenced To 8 Months In Prison Over His Reporting On Former Scottish First Minister’s Trial	Article	11 May 2021	Mohamed Elmaazi	Craig Murray tweets: "I cannot commend this article highly enough to anybody who wants to understand why and how I have been sentenced to prison."
Document:Wikipedia & the Spooks – The Remake	blog post	22 May 2018	Ludwig De Braeckeleer	In a video interview with George Galloway, journalist Neil Clark explains that "SlimVirgin" is back and teaming up with "Philip Cross". That is subtle or what?
File:Smith.pdf	email	May 2006	Craig Murray

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.